In the movie “The Matrix,” Neo is trying to free himself from an illusion, which makes the movie a perfect analogy for person trying to free themselves from a religion. Religion is a glorified system of thinking that venerates certain necessary “beliefs” as if they are absolutely true. The only reason those “true” beliefs have yet to solve all the world’s problems, those who peddle their brand of religion will assure you, is because not enough people have accepted those “beliefs” to be infallibly true. If everyone converted to Roman Catholicism tomorrow, so the thinking goes, all of the world’s problems would disappear. So why hasn't Catholicism, with all of its supernatural sacraments designed by God himself to "cure" us all, effectively "saved" our species of their sinful nature after 2000 years? Because that's just how sinful we really are! Indeed, even the death of Jesus himself couldn't help us! Just read the Book of Revelation, and you'll see we are a lost cause!
The matrix sold by religion is a prison of the mind that venerates this “belief,” and ways of thinking that support it, and condemns other ways of thinking that in anyway suggest this “belief” is pure fantasy. Tell a Catholic priest that “Communism is a better economic system than Capitalism,” and they will likely tell you the fall of the Soviet Union proves this is not true. Tell the same priest that their Catholicism has failed to “save the world after 2000 years, with over 70% of the world still NOT being Catholic,” and that same priest will defend his Catholicism and blame the people. This kind of intellectual relativism is an absolute MUST in religion, without which the religion would be unable to hide the fact it is simply a system of “beliefs” that has failed at least as much as any other, and often far more. But for the violence and extortion the Catholic Church has relied on for 2000 years, the Church would have died centuries ago.
But the ultimate goal of Catholicism is to create prison bars in our own mind. Those prison bars are what constitute the matrix, and they are formed by our own synapses. Those synapses operate like train tracks in our head, with the Church “approving” of our willingness to repeatedly reinforce the tracks the Church has laid down – like the fact we are born sinners and must fear hell our whole life – while also condemning any attempt by a person to lay down their own tracks – like choosing to believe you are NOT a born sinner and therefore do NOT need to live in fear of hell your whole life. Believe you are a sinner, and you need the drug of salvation being sold by the Catholic Church. Believe you are NOT a sinner, and you no longer need to spend your life groveling at their alter for their drug. You're choice. (But if you don't use your "free will" to pick that former, expect eternal fires as your reward. Praise Jesus!)
In the movie, Neo is attempting to "believe" he is not a gulity sinner who was purchased on the auction block through the blood of Christ, thus making him no better than a slave to the Catholic God (Church), while Agent Smith is merely social norms on the one hand, and Neo's confirmation biases on the other, attempting to force Neo back into believing he MUST believe he is a sinner that needs to be saved, and he can only be saved by being a Roman Catholic slave. Anyone who dares to challenge the sacred narrative offered by religion is a Satan, while anyone who only defends the story offered by religion is an Abraham who is willing to slaughter his own son just to get him so me heavenly rewards. The latter gets those rewards for simply reinforcing the synaptic bars of the prison they hide within becasue they fear the world and all of its diversity, or because they fear that God will torture them for all etnerity if they do NOT slaughter their own children. (In Gaithersburg, Maryland, a few years back, a woman followed in the footsteps of Abraham and drowned two of her children in her bathtub because she believed they were possessed by demons. God's plan at work again!)
But one is NOT actually using their intelligence by sticking to the venerated ideas of a sacred tradition. Rather, they are merely duping themselves into "believing" that they are not a glorified robot. To think for one self, one must notice the sacred traditions and question them by daring to design new ones, which is what St. Augustine did to help manufacture the ROMAN Catholic Relgion, or live without them. Otherwise, what the belief system glorifies as "courage" is merely cowardice of thinking for oneself without the training wheels that were attached to one's mind, often through fear and coercion, as a child.
The matrix sold by religion is a prison of the mind that venerates this “belief,” and ways of thinking that support it, and condemns other ways of thinking that in anyway suggest this “belief” is pure fantasy. Tell a Catholic priest that “Communism is a better economic system than Capitalism,” and they will likely tell you the fall of the Soviet Union proves this is not true. Tell the same priest that their Catholicism has failed to “save the world after 2000 years, with over 70% of the world still NOT being Catholic,” and that same priest will defend his Catholicism and blame the people. This kind of intellectual relativism is an absolute MUST in religion, without which the religion would be unable to hide the fact it is simply a system of “beliefs” that has failed at least as much as any other, and often far more. But for the violence and extortion the Catholic Church has relied on for 2000 years, the Church would have died centuries ago.
But the ultimate goal of Catholicism is to create prison bars in our own mind. Those prison bars are what constitute the matrix, and they are formed by our own synapses. Those synapses operate like train tracks in our head, with the Church “approving” of our willingness to repeatedly reinforce the tracks the Church has laid down – like the fact we are born sinners and must fear hell our whole life – while also condemning any attempt by a person to lay down their own tracks – like choosing to believe you are NOT a born sinner and therefore do NOT need to live in fear of hell your whole life. Believe you are a sinner, and you need the drug of salvation being sold by the Catholic Church. Believe you are NOT a sinner, and you no longer need to spend your life groveling at their alter for their drug. You're choice. (But if you don't use your "free will" to pick that former, expect eternal fires as your reward. Praise Jesus!)
In the movie, Neo is attempting to "believe" he is not a gulity sinner who was purchased on the auction block through the blood of Christ, thus making him no better than a slave to the Catholic God (Church), while Agent Smith is merely social norms on the one hand, and Neo's confirmation biases on the other, attempting to force Neo back into believing he MUST believe he is a sinner that needs to be saved, and he can only be saved by being a Roman Catholic slave. Anyone who dares to challenge the sacred narrative offered by religion is a Satan, while anyone who only defends the story offered by religion is an Abraham who is willing to slaughter his own son just to get him so me heavenly rewards. The latter gets those rewards for simply reinforcing the synaptic bars of the prison they hide within becasue they fear the world and all of its diversity, or because they fear that God will torture them for all etnerity if they do NOT slaughter their own children. (In Gaithersburg, Maryland, a few years back, a woman followed in the footsteps of Abraham and drowned two of her children in her bathtub because she believed they were possessed by demons. God's plan at work again!)
But one is NOT actually using their intelligence by sticking to the venerated ideas of a sacred tradition. Rather, they are merely duping themselves into "believing" that they are not a glorified robot. To think for one self, one must notice the sacred traditions and question them by daring to design new ones, which is what St. Augustine did to help manufacture the ROMAN Catholic Relgion, or live without them. Otherwise, what the belief system glorifies as "courage" is merely cowardice of thinking for oneself without the training wheels that were attached to one's mind, often through fear and coercion, as a child.
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